Appetite loss.

[JAKO91]

Hey guys,
Over the last few days my girl has gone right off her food. I've managed to get her to eat maybe 5-10 cricks a day by hand feeding her with tweezers and even that is a pain in the ass. Before she was smashing 40+a day. She's still hardly touching any veggies but she wasn't doing that before anyway. Also, i never see her drink... so i put her in the bath this morning but still didn't see her drink anything. Then something weird happened.. She started splashing about a bit and her legs started going all over the place, she was twisting her legs all around like they were twitching, and her hind legs were twitching up by her head similar to how a dog scratches its ears. I grabbed her out, wrapped her in a towel and she's fine now. I read that this could be signs of Metabolic Bone Disease, but she gets calcium every day, and she has a log underneath her uvb bulb and can get right up to within a couple of inches from it.
All my temps are spot-on and she isn't lethargic or grumpy, she is still quite perky and active and pooping normally (maybe a bit longer between poops), despite the appetite loss.

Can perhaps any of you fine people shed some light on my situation?

 

[Aleena]

You can syringe feed her water if you have to, which if you've never seen her drink might be a good idea! If they're dehydrated they won't want to eat much. Sounds like the thrashing in the water was just her freaking out like a lot of dragons do during a bath, but that's just the way I've seen it. Get her to a vet if you're really worried!

 

[Zen ReptileZ]

Well, the scratching like a dog is normal, all of mine do that. They also make really sudden movements which I believe is an instinctual behavior that aids in shedding. Twitching is another story. Does she twitch outside of the bath? Also, how old is she?

 

[Jp]

Make sure the temps of the water are 95-105. Bearded Dragons are very sensitive to temperature & can easily go into shock. As far as the loss of appetite, what are the temps in the enclosure?

 

[Jp]

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Bearded Dragons get the moisture they require from their diet & really only drink water when dehydrated.

 

[JAKO91]

Right, over the last couple of days she has shed a lot on all of her limbs, and i believe she is going to shed a bit on her face soon. This would explain the scratching and jerking movements in the bath. My temps are 110 and 85. She's 5 months and a big girl at 15 inches. I did manage to get her to eat a load of superwoms the other day, but apart from that shes still not got much appetite, just a few cricks here and there throughout the day. I'm guessing the shedding would explain the appetite loss? Just a little anxious to get her eating properly as shes been like this about 2 and 1/2 weeks now, plus i have a big tub of 500 crickets getting big and smelly in my closet haha

 

[Germ]

You are quite likely very right about the shed being the cause of the loss of appetite. This is a very common happening.

 

[Em Lynch]

I read somewhere (it might have been here i can't remember?) that a dragon with appetite loss loosing weight is likely to be an underlying problem, but a healthy dragon will sometimes eat less than normal for a few days and maintain weight. Mine recently went off her food but i discovered a large patch of pre-shed forming on her back so now i know why